WSBK – The 2009 Mondial Superbike season promises to be hot! – Haga and his new friends

The 2009 Mondial Superbike season promises to be hot !

WSBK - The 2009 Mondial Superbike season promises to be hot! - Haga and his new friends

Of course, the cold and the rain disrupted the first tests of 2009 on the Portimao circuit in Portugal. However, the new Mondial Superbike season promises to be hot … The fastest so far is Byrne. For the moment !

Haga and his new friends

Ten men stay within a second of Shane Byrne. Among them, very big names in world speed of course, but also new recruits: an American and several English…

Second in the final standings, Ben Spies proves that he can be counted on from the first races of the season: the triple American Superbike champion had no trouble adapting to the very last R1 and climbed to 19 youngsters hundredths of Byrne.

"Motorcycles now have a good top speed and we are continuously improving", rejoices the" Number One "of the USA, n ° 19 of the next World Cup. Not lazy, he also signed the second best time in the rain on Sunday morning.

"For Spies and Sykes, the advantage of revolutionary wedging Cross Plane crankshaft and irregular ignition lies in the gain in grip and the smoothness of the torque delivered, allowing our two pilots to achieve better times, in dry as in wet", underlines Yamaha.

Tom Sykes is not very far! The vice-champion of England is 4th: "I am very satisfied with these tests, we were a little late in South Africa (tests were held there before Christmas, Editor’s note), I was a little behind but now it’s caught up !", declares the new official pilot Yam ‘.

Between the two English speakers is housed an old veteran of the SBK World Cup: Noriyuki Haga. The Japanese failed in 3rd place for three tiny thousandths. A performance that could easily be accused of disappointing for those who have the equipment of the great Bayliss…

However, during Kyalami (South Africa) testing, Haga was dominated by his own teammate Fabrizio. This time, he regains the ascendancy over the Italian, ranked 8th. Next step for Noriyuki: to become the first Ducat ‘to be the first "short" ?

The Japanese are therefore satisfied with their tests: "we found the right direction for the settings and enjoyed each of my outings on the track", insists the famous n ° 41. He is however slightly more skeptical about the Superpole event, which would have placed him 4th on the grid…

"The new Superpole is weird, and when the weather is like today, with rain occurring during all three sessions, it complicates things", notes the official Ducati rider."We can make plans but we can’t predict the weather !", remarks Nitro Nori.

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